FREAK SHOW FRIDAY: The Hillbilly Hot Rod--With Shine Still

I honestly don’t know where to begin to describe this, because I don’t know whether it’s a moonshine still disguised as a truck, or a truck that happens to have a working still in the bed, or it’s a hot rodder’s hybrid, because the moonshine made in the bed of Charley Garrett’s Jeep also fuels the Jeep. Let me state that again; the moonshine is used to power Garrett’s Jeep. Really. Charley calls it his “Hillbilly Hot Rod.”

Charley thinks a little differently than most hot rodders, and that’s not a jab. He’s got a homebuilt convertible he made the entire body for, and has been on numerous Power Tours with it. He executes and finishes his ideas, something that can be difficult for the average hot rodder with the world whirling around them.

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Charley found the Jeep in the woods by his Arkansas house, and paid $20.00 for it. Says Charley, “When I first saw it I thought it would look cool with a still in it cruising the mountains of Arkansas.” He’s modified every panel of the truck with the exception of the front panel of the bed.

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He’s made a ton of changes to the body, and tied an S-10 subframe into the front, but the still in the bed is what you’re interested in, right?
It’s a Custom Ozark Bird Beak 20 gallon still, which can puke out four gallons of shine per hour. It’s also got a kustom keg, and “all of the old rum runner tricks.” But we’re just getting started.

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Charley has included old-school pursuer avoidance items like crows feet which are two nails bent in the center and welded together to make spikes for puncturing pursuer’s tires, an oil slick producer, oil mister, flame thrower, black out tail lights, and a blinder light which is a one million candle power light that moves side-to-side to blind followers. Yeeow!

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Inside he’s fashioned a “fuel sampler” which is a trap door in the glove box that produces a shot glass that is filled with shine from a windshield squirter. And there’s more, but Charley says, “I have a ton of ideas for the truck that are just too many to list.”

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He told us the shine-as-fuel is not the most practical as regular fuel will get him twice as far based on previous experience with shine in the gas tank, but it runs just fine with shine nonetheless.

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Others have gotten into the Hillbilly Hot Rod by providing support including Kicker, Mother’s, Magnaflow, Continental Tire, Copper Moon Shine Stills, Metrix Automotive Finishes, Fram, Boom Mat, and a few more pending.
Charley says he plans on debuting the Jeep at the HOT ROD Power Tour in 2017. We can’t wait! Good luck and keep us updated, Charley.